Just over a week after Cory Booker correctly pointed out on national television that President Obama’s attack on Mitt Romney’s work in business was “nauseating,” the mayor’s communications director was let go on Tuesday.

Anne Torres, who was in charge of preparing Mayor Booker for TV and other public appearances, fell on her sword as a good soldier, declaring officially that “it is best if I pursued other opportunities.”

However, three city officials with knowledge of the matter told the Star-Ledger that Torres was forced out. The unlucky aide was made a “scapegoat” for the Newark mayor’s indiscrete comments, the officials said.

All this should be very instructive to open-minded voters. Unfortunately, it may also serve as an object lesson for Democratic officials who dissent from the party line as established by an incumbent determined to muscle his way to re-election.

Cory Booker’s rebuke of President Obama on NBC’s “Meet the Press” was honest and forthright. As Booker explained, President Obama, in speeches and in advertising, has misrepresented Mitt Romney’s work with Bain Capital, a private equity firm Romney founded. President Obama has characterized Romney’s work as “vampire” capitalism, and Booker cried foul.

As many have noticed, President Obama has hung his quest for a return to the White House on dividing the nation between “us” (the 99 percent) and “them” (the one percent). The attack on Romney’s work with Bain Capital is part of that re-election strategy.

Booker’s honest comments created an immediate problem. A popular mayor in a Democratic stronghold, and often an informal spokesman for President Obama’s policies, Booker had spoken heresy. Making matters worse, Republicans produced an ad featuring Booker’s comments.

David Axelrod, the president’s chief enforcer, delivered a public rebuke to Booker, saying Booker’s comment “was just wrong.” (We don’t know what words Axelrod might have spoken to Booker in private.) Booker backpedaled, saying his words were misunderstood.

Of course, Booker’s recanting did not fool anyone. Booker’s original words were clear enough. But perhaps Booker is looking to a continuing future in Democratic politics.

Not wanting to embarrass the president or the mayor, reporters quickly labeled Booker’s words a “gaffe.” Some of the time, a gaffe is spoken when a politician says something obviously silly. (Joe Biden comes to mind.) But here, as most of the time, a gaffe is simply a truth spoken at an inconvenient time or place.

So what does this episode tell us about how the presidential campaign might play out?

First, this episode illustrates that President Obama is, at heart, a committed socialist. Of course, as the incumbent and leader of one of the nation’s two major parties, Barack Obama cannot come right out and declare that he is a socialist – not if he wants to be re-elected. Americans would never endorse the “S”-word spoken by a major candidate.

But if Barack Obama does not openly identify himself as a socialist, both his economic program and re-election campaign fit that worldview. President Obama‘s stated argument against Mitt Romney is that his Republican challenger has acted as a capitalist exploiter (a “vampire,” to quote the president) to impoverish the working man. That is rhetoric straight out of the socialist playbook.

What is striking about President Obama’s rhetoric is the way in which it presents a caricature of the capitalist business leader, and paints Romney as an example of such a villain.

Consider. A politician who supports capitalism will talk about the virtues of the capitalist system, and how government can best get out of the way to let that free market system work. By contrast, a socialist invariably paints a cartoon picture of the capitalist and how the state must protect ordinary folk.

President Obama betrays his fundamental beliefs about economics and politics by regularly and routinely painting capitalists – those who supply money and organizational skills to make businesses work – as stick figures.

Cory Booker, no socialist, recognized that President Obama’s caricature of capitalism, and Mitt Romney as a practitioner of capitalism, was (and is) a cartoon picture. An honest guy, Booker spoke from his heart and his brain.

And that leads us to the second lesson we can draw from this episode. This is a lesson – a message -- not so much for voters, but for elected Democratic officials.

The message is this: President Obama’s program may smack of socialism. But those who don’t cooperate in the effort to bamboozle the voters will get the same comeuppance that Cory Booker got.